"if that recognition comes it would be an honour."
The Conservative Party received significant donations from British Asians, accepting £48 million.
Overall, political parties accepted £93 million in donations in 2023, nearly double the £52 million from the previous year, according to the Electoral Commission.
In total, Labour amassed just over £31 million in overall donations in 2023, a significant increase from the £21.4m the party accepted in 2022.
But despite being behind in the polls, the Conservatives beat Labour again in political donations last year.
In the final quarter of the year alone, the Tories raised £9.8 million and Labour £6 million.
Businessman Bobby Arora and his brothers Simon and Robin own B&M.
He made one of the largest single donations to any political party when he gave the Tories £250,000 in December.
The brothers bought B&M in 2004 when it had 21 outlets. It now has more than 700.
They were valued at £2.9 billion by Eastern Eye’s Asian Rich List in November 2023.
In May 2023, Rishi Sunak faced backlash for taking a private helicopter from London to Yorkshire, a trip which included a detour to visit Arora in Alticham – with the helicopter landing in the businessman’s garden.
However, Arora’s donation pales in comparison to that of Amit Lohia.
Nicknamed ‘The Prince of Polyester,’ Amit Lohia is the vice-chairman of Singapore-based textile giant Indorama Corporation.
Founded by his father and grandfather in 1975, Lohia has been part of his family’s business since 1995.
In March 2023, Lohia donated £2 million to the Conservative party, his first and only so far.
Lohia also sits on the board of sister company Indorama Ventures, which manufactures plastic resins, polyester yarn and wool products.
The business came under scrutiny in 2023 when it was found to be a majority shareholder in hygiene fabrics firm Avgol, which has a production line in Russia’s Tula Oblast region.
A spokesperson for the businessman said:
“Amit Lohia is a non-executive director of Indorama Ventures Ltd and made the donation in a personal capacity.
“Avgol Russia makes materials used in babies’ nappies and feminine hygiene products. It represents less than 0.19% of Indorama Venture’s operations.”
Dr Selva Pankaj, who runs the privately-owned Regent College London and other education businesses, donated £125,000, with £24,293 coming in the last quarter.
He has personally given more than £600,000 to the Tories.
Pankaj co-founded Regent with his wife Tharshiny in 2000, originally providing private tuition at £20 an hour. Their business has grown and has now reached more than 50,000 students.
Asked if he hoped the donations would lead to a peerage, Pankaj said:
“At some point, for the contribution we give to the country we love and adopted, if that recognition comes it would be an honour.
“But I think it’s a myth that you buy recognition, you reward recognition.”
“If it happens, it happens. It’s got to happen naturally, if it deserved to happen, otherwise how could you look at your children?”
Vraj Pankhania donated £74,593 to the Tories in the last quarter of the year.
He and his sons own the property development company Westcombe Group.
Westcombe is one of the UK’s most successful residential property developers with assets worth £500 million.
They grew the company with Vraj taking out a £5,000 loan to becoming one of the UK’s top 25 property developers. Westcombe specialises in bringing old and disused listed buildings to life.
The Tory party received £350,000 last May from Supreme 8 Ltd, which is owned by Sandeep ‘Sandy’ Singh Chadha. He made a further payment of £50,000 in November.
Chadha is the chief executive of Supreme PLC, a Manchester-based company that manufactures and sells vapes.
It also acts as a distributor for Elf Bar, a Chinese-owned firm that has been criticised for marketing vapes that appeal to young people.
The PM has been under pressure to give away Chadha’s donation.
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting MP, said:
“It is unacceptable for a political party to accept donations from [those who], by your own admission, have driven the rise of youth vaping in this country”.
Chadha said it was a personal donation he had made himself, rather than on behalf of Supreme PLC.
He said the firm neither markets nor sells its products to children.
The Conservative Party has said that all donations have been declared to the EC and comply fully with the law.
The Conservatives continued to receive large donations from regular supporters such as the founder and CEO of Square Mile investment banking firm Fenchurch Advisory, Malik Karim, who was previously the treasurer to the party.
Karim donated £872,000 to the Tories between 2014 and 2021. Meanwhile, his firm donated a further £23,750.
Other notable donations to the Tory party came from Bristol Laboratories (£10,000), whose owner and managing director is Thembalath Ramachandran; interior designer Shalini Misra, who donated £10,000 and former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who donated £7,934.
British Asian donors have a preference to donate to the Conservative Party rather than other parties.
In 2023, Lord Waheed Alli was appointed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as the party’s head of election fundraising.
He made multiple donations to the party in November and December totalling £12,008.
Medway councillor Naushabah Khan made three donations in December totalling £12,400.
Having previously failed to become an MP in 2015 when she stood in the Rochester and Strood constituency, Khan will try again in 2024.
Shobi Khan’s The Canary Wharf Group made two payments totalling £13,735 to the Labour Party in November.
Among the Liberal Democrats, long-time contributor Sudhir Choudhrie made six payments to the party between October-December totalling £21,666.
Another regular Lib Dem donor is the businessman Dinesh Dhamija, who gave £4,000.
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